


A Last Request

by captain_indigo



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Angst, Character Death, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-06-18
Updated: 2013-06-18
Packaged: 2017-12-15 08:53:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,269
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/847630
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/captain_indigo/pseuds/captain_indigo
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Fic Prompt: Dean holding a dying Castiel. Their final words to each other. Bonus points for wing-related feels.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Last Request

**Author's Note:**

> [Season 8 spoilers for anyone who hasn’t watched it. oh god i just realized how bad this is but i’m going to post it anyway fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck-ok so Cas gets shot with the angel gun and doesn’t recover so well? It was the only timeline placement that made sense to me. if you like it or have comments or reviews please let me know! Rated T+ for death description I guess.]

The night was warm and damp, air slapping Dean’s face as he drove.

“WoOOOOOOah, we’re half-way the-er, woOOooOOAH! Liiiiivin’ on a pra-hayer-“

He needed this. Still no word about Advanced Placement, no word about Cas, just waiting and worrying. Sammy had been muttering something about a lead with the tablets before he left, but hell, who knew if that was going to work out. They needed groceries, and Dean needed to get out of the bat cave before he punched another bookcase. At least when he got groceries, he could make sure there was pie. Cherry this time, and it was safely perched on top of the bags in the back seat. Now if only Cas would get his ass back here before he screwed anything else up… There was no warning, only a split second in which he recognized the sound of wings underneath the roar of the engine, and Cas blinked into existence in the middle of the road. Dean’s heart jumped up into his throat as he swore, yanking the wheel to the side and slamming his foot on the breaks.

“Cas?!” he yelled, shoving the door open with a metallic creak. The angel was collapsed in the road, his trench coat fanned out around him, his hair spiking every which way. “Cas!” It didn’t look like he had hit him at any rate, but…aw shit.

“Hh…hello Dean.” came the low rasp.

“Shit man, where’ve you been? What happened to you? You’re…” And then Dean stopped, his focus narrowing to the widening stains of blood on the angel’s body, and the barely-there flickers of silver light starting in Cas’s eyes and in his chest behind his clenched hands. No. Not this. Dean tried to contort his face into something reassuring. “Hey, we better get you some help. Can’t protect that tablet if you’re passed out from blood loss, right? Cas?” He seemed to suddenly regain the use of his limbs, and crossed the remaining feet of road, dropping to one knee. The angel managed to prop himself up on an elbow, wincing and clutching his other arm across his chest.

“Dean. I was so certain. I needed to keep the tablet safe, at all costs. And yet, I have been certain before, and I was sorely mistaken. And now… ” Cas grimaced again, his breath and strength failing him as they never had before. Dean made an aborted motion to help him up, but something held him in place, kept the space between the two intact. “Dean. I am the angel who rebuilt you, I know you better than any other being save for your brother, and yet I have never been able to understand. I have failed your family even more frequently than I have failed my own, and yet still you would come to my aid. I-” A wet cough brought him up short, speckling the dark asphalt with blood.

“God damn it Cas, shut up. Don’t waste your breath on this chick flick shit, you’re gonna make it through this. We all are, and then we’re going to figure out what to do. Like we always do.”

“Dean.” the angel rasped. “My wound is mortal. You cannot-“

“No-Cas-just-FUCK!” Dean shouted, slamming his fist into the damp asphalt. “Just hold on, Sammy and me’ll get you whatever you need. You do whatever you do with all that angel mojo, and you pull yourself together, you understand me?” He lept up, turning back towards the car to grab the first aid kit. There was no answer for a moment, and Dean paused mid-stride, went white, and whipped back around. “Cas?!”

“Dean.” came the answering whisper, and Dean almost choked with relief. “Dean. Come here.” Cas hissed. “I need you.” A tremor rippled through the taller man’s body, and he schooled the pain off of his face. It was happening again. Someone else was dying, and there was nothing he could do. God, he was so tired of this. Tired of burying his friends. He knelt, gently, pulling Cas up into a sitting position. Good thing Sammy wasn’t here. He’d never hear the end of it.

Seconds seemed like hours. Cas’s tousled head was slumped against Dean’s shoulder, his weight making the other’s knees ache against the cooling pavement. His breathing grew slower, and began to catch in his throat. The flickers of grace caught in the air, melding oddly with the moonlight. The air seemed to brighten, even as Castiel began to fade.

“Cas.” It came out huskier than he had intended. “You did good Cas. We’ll keep going. We won’t let this be for nothing.” Cas managed to turn his head, his eyes glowing silver-blue.

“Thank you Dean. My Father is absent. My brothers and sisters have failed in their charge, as have I. I have even failed you, my…. family. More times than I wish to consider. However…if there is anyone who I believe can succeed, it is you, Dean Winchester. If I may… make a reference. There may come a day when the courage of the Righteous Man fails, but it is not this day.” Dean snorted and rubbed at a piece of dirt that had somehow gotten in his eye.

“You picked a hell of a time to start caring about my references Cas.” Something besides grace was shining in Cas’ face, so bright that Dean had to look away. His wings, which had been curled around the pair, began to glow, red as embers.

“I have not always understood your references Dean, but I have always…cared.” Cas sighed, pressing his hand into Dean’s. “I may not be enough in your good graces to make this request, but I will make it anyway. Keep this. Remember me, if you choose. Do what I could not.”.

Dean’s closed his hand around Cas’s, and then everything was far too bright. He could feel the heat of the angel’s feathers burning into the ground around him, into the arm that he had slung around Cas’s shoulders. He couldn’t bring himself to let go. He felt something swirl around him, so full of heart that he thought it might kill him right there. It got brighter, hotter; there was a rushing of sound like a great wind, and then…silence.

For a full minute, as the warmth bled out of the air around him, Dean couldn’t open his eyes. He couldn’t. It was all too heavy suddenly, as the weight of yet another loss collapsed in around him. And then…his hand. Cas had handed him something, and that flash of curiosity was enough. He looked. Not at Cas yet, he wasn’t ready for that, but into their clasped hands. It was the amulet. The one Sam had given him, the one that Cas had taken to find God, and somehow kept all this time. With the tenderness that he reserved only for the dead, Dean brushed closed those long-lashed eyes. Releasing the body felt like letting go over a long, dark drop, but he did it. He had to. People, alive and otherwise, were counting on him. Before, that knowledge would have weighed him down, but this time was different. Do what an angel of the lord couldn’t? Impossible. But Cas…Cas believed. And who was Dean to deny his dying wish? He laid the body back, gently, onto the street, his charred jacked flaking off, like a rain of dark feathers onto the road. Ignoring the stretch of the fresh, branching scars burnt into his left arm, he knotted the amulet firmly around his neck. He had work to do.


End file.
